Pondy doctors remove 8-inch veg cutter from boy’s body

Doctors at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) removed an aruvamanai (vegetable cutter) that was stuck in the back of a 15-year-old boy. The iron cutter had pierced the rib cage, damaging parts of the heart, spleen, kidney and stomach.

| TNN | Updated: Mar 10, 2013, 04:03 IST

PUDUCHERRY: Doctors at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) removed an aruvamanai (vegetable cutter) that was stuck in the back of a 15-year-old boy. The iron cutter had pierced the rib cage, damaging parts of the heart, spleen, kidney and stomach.
Jipmer official spokesman K Mahesh said R Prabhu of Thiruvakkarai in Villupuram district jumped from a tree on to the tiled roof of a house while playing.

The roof collapsed and the boy fell through. An 'aruvamanai' lying on the floor of the house pierced his back.

The metal was stuck between the ribs. "We could see the cutter move with each heart beat. It caused him excruciating pain," Mahesh said.

Tests, including X-ray and CT scans, showed the cutter had entered the abdomen between the spleen and the left kidney, tearing the stomach and diaphragm at four places. "It also damaged the surface of the left lung and entered the outer layer of the heart. It was lying between the blood vessels of the lung and heart. The outer parts of these blood vessels were also affected," said assistant professor (cardiothoracic and vascular surgery) Durga Prasad Rath, who headed the surgical team. It took the doctors six-and-a-half hours to remove the cutter stage-by-stage. After saving the blood vessels, they slowly pulled out the metal from the body without causing further damage.

After this, a team of general surgeons led by Dr Manwar Ali repaired the wounds and leaks in the abdomen. "Since the patient will not be able to eat till the wounds heal, we
connected a feeding tube to his intestine," he said.

The boy was kept under observation in the intensive care unit and discharged 12 days later with a feeding tube. Once the wounds healed, the feeding tube was removed. During the follow-up medical examination, the boy was on a normal diet, Rath said.

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